The market for electronic devices, and particularly the individual consumer market, is extremely competitive. In order to increase sales, manufacturers of those electronic devices seek to make the outward appearance of those devices as pleasing to potential consumers as possible. While highly light reflective, very smooth, external surfaces on certain devices may be desirable, it has become increasingly popular to texture at least portions of the external surfaces of electronic devices to both minimize light glare and to provide for better gripping surfaces. In addition, texturing surfaces operates to hide minor defects or flaws in the surface of the device. This has the double effect of increasing eye appeal and reducing the incidence of dropping those devices by users, particularly where the devices are hand-held devices.
Various abrasive blasting techniques are known to texture surface materials. Bead blasting is one known technique which removes portions of a surface by directing fine beads of material at high pressure against the surface to be textured. For example, utilizing bead blasting on an aluminum surface produces a textured effect on that surface. This textured effect reduces light glare thereby producing a desirable “finished” look to various enclosures for electronic devices as well as providing a better gripping surface. While suitable for many applications, the use of bead blasting or other types of abrasive blasting methods has limitations in that those techniques are not precise. For example, in bead blasting, directing the stream of beads to texture the surface is not precisely controlled. This lack of precision may make abrasive techniques suitable for large surfaces while limiting their use on small surfaces such as buttons or even use on large surfaces where less than the entire surface is to be ablated. For example, where texturing is desired around lettering or other decorative surfaces, it is not cost effective or technically feasible to abrasively blast the surface around such lettering while leaving the lettering untouched. Even micro-abrasive blasting may lack sufficient control to create a texture around a small letter or in between letters of a word, while leaving the individual letters untouched. Thus, for example, to use blasting techniques may require that the lettering be masked which can be difficult or impossible, depending upon the size of the mask and its proximity to nearby masks. In addition, the mask may be prone to damage or destruction during the blasting process, thereby resulting in an unsatisfactory finish to the then exposed portions of the surface. The problem with masking is made even more difficult when the mask is very small or has a complex configuration.
Accordingly, an improved method and/or system for texturing an exterior of an electronic device may be useful.